Review
SUMMARY
Flipping Coppus is mergers and acquisitions in short story format. The first five chapters each describe a business combination in short story. The stories are true, the characters are real, and each story builds on the last. Chapter one describes a management buyout; chapter two the purchase by one company of the division of another; three, the purchase of a business from bankruptcy proceedings; four, the sale of a division; and five, the investment banker / auction process for selling the entire company. Chapter six outlines some of the textbook theory of the merger and acquisition process and chapter seven provides a glossary of terms. The book is written in layman's terms and is intended for managers and professionals as well as business school students and seminar attendees. It is an easy-to-read reference and a good companion to have available when you are confronted with the sale of your employer or with participating in the integration process when your employer buys another business. Flipping Coppus is about the conditions people face when their employer is about to be sold - the human dramas that play out on both sides when one company buys another. It is also about the preparation process - having the right people in place to manage the growth and change set in motion by a business combination. More importantly, it demonstrates the need for having capable people on both sides to develop and carry out the critical process of integrating two separate business cultures into a motivated and productive whole.
AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION
Companies are bought and sold every day and at times it seems that the pace of buying and selling is more frantic each year. This process of merger, acquisition and divestiture has been going on in this country since the early days of the industrial revolution. There have been ebbs and flows over the years, but clearly it is more of an ongoing business strategy than in times past. The event is the coming together of buyer and seller to close a transaction. The result is change. The buyer has a new business to manage, the seller has a new culture to learn and adopt, and buyer and seller together must undergo an integration process. All too often, some of the changes brought about by business combinations are restructurings, layoffs, and plant closings. On the other hand, change can offer challenge and opportunity for the thoughtful and enterprising. My purpose here is to describe the activity of buying and selling companies on a human scale. Who creates these transactions and why? After the close, what happens to the people involved and why? What are the different kinds of business combination and what distinguishes a good deal from a bad one? More than likely, you or someone close to you will be involved in one of these transactions, that is your employer, your best customer, your most important client, or your most reliable supplier will be a buyer or a seller in a business combination. Flipping Coppus talks about the buying, the selling, and the aftermath. I hope that through these stories you can gain an appreciation for the process of merger, acquisition, and divestiture and learn how to deal with the practical realities of these situations if and when you become involved in them.
PRAISE FOR FLIPPING COPPUS
A must read for anyone involved with a company being bought or sold, be it your employer, your customer, your supplier, or your client. The change-in-ownership process affects all involved on both business and emotional levels. The author presents five short stories, each the tale of a business combination and each related to the others. You meet the people and live the interactions among them - the company presidents, the middle managers, the rank and file and the lawyers, bankers and accountants. You hear their worries, their stresses, and the risks they take. You see the excitement, the fear, the success, the failure; the anticipations, the uncertainties, the rewards, the disappointments, all of which are a part of the human adventures surrounding companies being bought and sold. The short stories are entertaining in themselves. The two concluding chapters provide a very readable text and glossary of terms about the merger and acquisition process.
